Dublin principal charged with assault

Dublin principal Connie S. Stitzlein, 51, was reassigned last week after she was charged with an assault stemming from a domestic disturbance call to her New Albany home.

District spokesman Doug Baker said he could not comment further due to pending legal action.

Stitzlein was arrested Feb. 21 by New Albany Police after her fiancee, William Schubert, sought medical attention at the Plain Township fire station.

Medics contacted New Albany police after they transported Schubert to Mount Carmel St. Ann's hospital for treatment of a laceration to his eye. He said his eye was hurt when his girlfriend threw a drawer at him during an argument.

When officers contacted Stitzlein at the home she shares with Schubert on Bevelhymer Road in New Albany, they suspected she was intoxicated because she had glassy eyes and smelled of alcohol. She said she had one martini, but was not intoxicated, a police report from officer Garrett Fernander said.

According to police reports, Stitzlein admitted to throwing a drawer down the stairs, although she said she did not mean to hurt Schubert.

"Rather she implied that the throw had been impulsive and out of frustration and that she had not realized Bill was at the bottom of the staircase," the report said.

Fernander also noted in the report that "one or more" light bulbs had been smashed on the stairs.

Stitzlein said Schubert had threatened to beat her with a plastic flashlight, and police reports said he admitted he "had threatened her with the flashlight" when police spoke with him at the hospital.

Stitzlein appeared in court last week and pleaded not guilty. A pretrial hearing is slated March 31.